Newly elected Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen smiles as he makes his first statement to the media after winning the presidential runoff on May 23, 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The Austrian government confirmed that green-backed candidate Alexander van der Bellen narrowly beats his far-right rival Norbert Hofer to the presidency after postal votes broke a tie in the closely watched race.AAP Image - NEWZULU - Martin Juen

Austria elects their first Green president

ALEXANDER Van der Bellen has narrowly beaten his far-right rival Norbert Hofer to become Austria's new head of state.

Despite two different exit polls giving Mr Hofer of the right-wing Freedom Party the lead, Austria's interior minister announced independent candidate Mr Van der Bellen will become the country's next president.

Mr Van der Bellen, 72, campaigned on a pro-EU platform and was backed by the Greens. Although officially independent, he led the Greens for a decade and has been hailed as the world's first Green head of state.

Nearly 700,000 absentee ballots were counted on Monday to determine the winner of the knife-edge election. Only a little more than 31,000 votes separated the two, out of more than 4.6 million votes cast.

Sunday's provisional result, which did not include postal ballots, showed Mr Hofer ahead with 51.1 per cent to Mr Van der Bellen's 48.1 per cent.

Mr Hofer conceded defeat in a post on Facebook.

He said he was "naturally sad", adding: "I would have been happy to have cared for our wonderful country as federal president."

He said the work his supporters put in during the election is "not lost but an investment in the future".

Dr Moshe Kantor, President of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation and President of the European Jewish Congress, said: "While we are certainly satisfied with the result, there is little room to celebrate the high level of support for someone with such extremist views.

"Unfortunately, the dissatisfaction with the moderate mainstream parties is providing oxygen to those like Hofer and the Freedom Party, and we are seeing signs of these trends across Europe, so it is incumbent on the more Centrist parties to use this as a wake-up call and listen to the grievances of the people."

"It's a relief to see the Austrians reject populism and extremism," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in a Twitter post. "Everyone in Europe must draw lessons from this."

Austria's presidency is a largely ceremonial role, but has important powers such as the ability to dismiss the National Council, a move which would trigger a general election.